I might not have much choice but to get Spoon's new LP, Gimme Fiction. I posted a link to "I Turn My Camera On" a little while ago, and now Fluxblog offers "The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine." The verses have a distinct "Last Dance with Mary Jane" feel to them.

I couldn't find a link for the album version of my fave Spoon track "Everything Hits at Once," but Sixeyes offers a link to the "For Discos" remix, which is basically the same but without the organ (which is key). Also, check out the video

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I occasionally watch the Speed Channel when they have stuff about cool cars that I can't afford, and I noticed that they would have this attractive girl doing show introductions. Whatever I thought, they're just catering to the all-male audience. But then they introduced her as an actual race car driver, which made it kinda cool. Well, it turns out Danica Patrick is pretty serious, as evidenced by her front-page appearance on ESPN today. There've been a slew of women who have raced Indy cars, but Patrick apparently has a couple things going for her that previous women didn't: she's attractive, and she's actually pretty good. She was also born in Beloit, Wisco, which earns her bonus points in my book.

Then there's Laleh Seddigh, whose on-track aspirations have an entirely different significance. She's the first female race-car driver in Iran, as the NYT reports. I found this interesting because you hear about how women can't drive even in Saudi Arabia, yet in Iran women are allowed to drive and now race. I did a quick web search to see what the deal was with the Saudis' ban on women driving, and found an editorial which suggested that it isn't a religious issue per se, but rooted more in lazy sexism and "practicality" problems. Granted, sexist attitudes go hand-in-hand with an Islamic society, but it's reassuring to know the Koran doesn't specifically ban women from driving (which would be pretty interesting for a 1400 year old document).


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I've noticed some odd ads on some of the music sites I go to referring to a stolen Audi A3, the new entry-level-compact-luxury-hatchback that Audi is bringing to the US after having it in Europe for a while. Anyway, given I like cars I felt obligated to click through but found only Audi's stupid, confusing, lame, and misguided attempt at guerrilla marketing.

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I think a stage name is in order.